Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A vandal's rock set off a chain of events that left more than $15,000 in damage to a semitrailer in Waterloo. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/x9lENd) the truck was on the Sixth Street bridge about 3 p.m. Sunday when a vandal threw a rock that shattered the truck's windshield. The driver hit his brakes, which caused the cargo to slide forward and break through the front trailer wall and crash into the truck cab.

Police say the truck driver scrambled down out of the cab and chased the rock thrower for about two blocks but didn't catch him.

Damage to the cab was estimated at more than $10,000 and more than $5,000 to the trailer.

As we now know, the transmissions were interfering in a dangerous fashion with air traffic controllers:

Overnight, IDF soldiers accompanied an operation of the Israeli Ministry of Communications to close two pirate television stations in Ramallah, followed by countless requests to seize their broadcasting, which significantly interrupts other legal broadcasting stations. During the operation, in accordance with law, Communications Ministry representatives confiscated several transmitters. The station's illegal broadcasting interferes with aircraft communication.

Communiqué from Philippe Karsenty
Reaction to the verdict of the Court of Cassation rendered February 28, 2012

Contrary to the recommendation of the advocate general, advising the court to reject the appeal filed by Charles Enderlin and France 2, the Court of Cassation [France’s highest court] nullified the acquittal pronounced by the Appellate Court of Paris on May 21, 2008. The nullification, which is disciplinary and based on a legal technicality, does not prejudge the outcome: the Court of Cassation deems that the Appellate Court of Paris could not order France 2 to show the raw footage containing images that were not broadcast by France 2. However, the legal criteria of my good faith– quality of the investigation, absence of personal animosity, legitimacy of aim and purpose, prudent and measured expression – were not challenged. Charles Enderlin, France 2, and I will find ourselves in court again at an undetermined date to plead our cases in the al Dura affair. The case will be heard again in the Appellate Court of Paris, by a different panel of judges convened to reexamine the facts.

I serenely anticipate the hearing that will allow me to present once more to the court and concerned media the demonstration that France 2 broadcast a staged scene as news on September 30, 2000.

In more than eleven years of controversy, we have brought dozens of pieces of evidence and scientific expertise showing that the scene was staged, whereas France 2, Charles Enderlin, and their cameraman have never been able to prove the veracity of their reportage. Further, it has been revealed through a succession of court cases that France 2, Charles Enderlin, his cameraman, and the father of young Mohamed have lied on several occasions to cover their media fraud.I have presented the al Dura affair in many journalism schools and festivals, in prestigious European and American universities, before the Senate and the House of Lords; no one has ever succeeded in refuting the evidence of a staged scene.

I call upon open-minded people to pursue the search for the truth. This is a combat for the honor of the journalistic profession, for justice, for democracy and against disinformation; a combat against the murderous anti-Semitism conveyed by this reportage. I ask those who in good faith believed the narration imposed by this reportage to simply examine the facts without prejudgment. It is the uncompromising establishment of the truth that will contribute to the sorely needed peace, tolerance, and friendship among people and nations.

Click here to view one of my presentations of the al Dura Affair
Click here to view a TV debate on al Dura on the Canadian TV
Click here for a compilation of documents filmed during trials
Click here for all the al Dura presentations

If I were asked what I regard as the most disheartening aspect in Jewish life as refected in the tragi-comedy of the herem, I would say that… we have rabbinical gangsters who resort to nazi methods in order to regain their authority and on the other hand our Jewish journalists are cynical about the whole business and treat the very attempt to articulate religious values in terms of a modern outlook in life as silly and superfluous.17

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

David Gerstman has sent out a post, "Lara in wonderland", on the participation of Americans for Peace Now's Lara Friedman which I repos in part:

On February 26 and 27, there was an International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha Qatar. It featured participants from all over the Middle East. Among those speaking was Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority and Israel's supposed peace partner.

...Between 1948 and 1967, Jerusalem was a neglected backwater of the Arab world. There were essentially no Muslim pilgrims going there. And while thousands of Christians would indeed visit Jerusalem every Easter, that number increased dramatically after Israel regained possession of the holy city.

Abbas is pushing lies and incitement, and his speech is filled with hypocrisy about things like freedom of worship when he would ban (or, at best, severely restrict) Jews from ever visiting their holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere if given half a chance.

This speech reveals the ugly face of Mahmoud Abbas and how he is not interested in peace or co-existence at all, let alone the truth.

...The denial of a historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel, is a blatant violation of the terms of Oslo Accords. Unlike the building of apartments in Jerusalem, no creative interpretation is necessary to reach this conclusion. Yet there's been precious little comment about this obstacle to peace declared by the "moderate" leader of the Palestinians.

One American who was at the conference, was Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now. Though she denies that she went as a representative of her organization, she is identified as being with APN on the list of participants. Her presence at this anti-Israel hatefest discredits her and her organization.

It was however an eyeopening experience for Dr. Friedman, as she wrote after the first day of the conference...:

If representatives of the organization that sponsored the Arab Peace Initiative cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the legitimacy of Jewish equities in Jerusalem, they should know that they discredit their own professed interest in peace. Their framing of the future of Jerusalem as a zero-sum game only makes it more likely that Israel will continue asserting its current power over East Jerusalem to hinder the vision of two states living in peace with a Jerusalem as a shared capital.

All throughout the day, it was unfortunately the same story. Participants talked about Jerusalem as if Jewish history did not exist or was a fraud — as if all Jewish claims in the city were just a tactic to dispossess Palestinians...
It is my hope that the rest of the conference will deal more honestly and more constructively with the reality...I regret that the conference so far has not taken the issues related to Jerusalem more seriously, and I am proud that I am here representing a truly pro-peace — and thus be definition pro-Israel — perspective. Much of the discourse here thus far has been personally objectionable and even painful to me, but I believe my presence here is important for the cause of peace.

What Lara Friedman heard at the International Conference on Jerusalem is nothing new. The commitment of the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority to peace is dubious, as evidenced by statements they continue to make eighteen years after Oslo. If Friedman cared to know about them, she would. But her career as a "Zionist" is marked by holding Israel mostly (if not completely) to blame for the failure of peace despite the many concessions even the most "right-wing" governments of Israel have made.

Will this serve as a wake up call to Friedman? It hardly seems likely. Her response to the hatred and denial she heard was disappointment not outrage. No doubt she will return to the United States and continue finding fault first with Israel.

What will Americans for Peace Now do? Will it disassociate itself from Friedman? Or will it continue functioning without apologizing for the actions of its officer?

The Fanat in the Hat and Other Stories
Eli D. Clark (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

I sat there with Sally. We sat on the bus. We sat there together. No one made a fuss.

Then who came aboard? The Fanat in the Hat! And he said to us, How can you sit like that? You know it is wrong To sit next to each other.

I said, She s my sister, And I am her brother. He pointed at Sally, Go back there to sit. If you stay in front, I think I will spit. I do not want to see you Go out or come in. Your elbows are showing And making men sin.

I paid for my seat Just like you, Sally cried. I can sit where I want! It s for me to decide! Where do you think you are? This is not Tel Aviv. The Fanat in the Hat said, Sit in back or you leave.

Now do as I say, You loose woman, you. Then out from behind Came Thug One and Thug Two.They had beards, they had hats, And they wore black and white. Their fingers were curled Into fists that were tight.

They were big, they were mean, And they blocked our way. They did not look like men Who learn Torah all day. They screamed at poor Sally. Prutzoh! they shouted. We will take care of you.

And we did not doubt it.

We looked up to heaven. We looked left and right. Should we try to run Or stand up and fight? We needed a plan, A way to escape, Before those two Thugs Squashed us both like a grape. Then Thug One and Thug Two Shouted,

Oy! Help us please! The Fanat in the Hat Just fell to his knees. What made them shake And what made them yelp? What made those bullies Cry out for help?

We looked and we saw A giant black cat, Walking erect In a red and white hat.The Cat in the Hat Looked the Thugs in the eye. These things need to stop. And I ll tell you why. Scaring young women Is not a good game. Worse, it is causing A Hillul Ha-Shem.

Here is a new game To play, said the cat. The game is called boxing. Are you good at that? The Thugs said, We box. When we finish with you, You will lie on your back For a week or for two. The cat pulled a box out And opened the top. We heard a big voom That made everything stop.

The Fanat in the Hat And the Thugs in their beards Were sucked into the box. They all disappeared.The cat closed the lid And sealed it with glue. Goodbye, said the cat, And good riddance to you. The cat said to us,

You can sit as before. Those three nuts will not Bother you any more. Oh, they will, Sally said, For good or for bad. Those men in your box Are my brothers and Dad.

Someone named Daniela Deane (I'm guessing she's the same DD that published at CNN recently and has been at the WashPost since 1999 and was a reporter at USA Today covering international news. She spent most of her career in Europe and Asia, working as a correspondent and editor for UPI and Reuters, and as a stringer for The Post and Newsweek) had an atrocious blog entry at the Washington Post today:

a) " the Temple Mount, Jerusalem’s sacred site for Muslims". No. The Temple Mount is sacred for Jews, for Muslims it is Haram A-Sharif and they deny any Temple existed or that the site possesses any sanctity. Oh, the Westrern Wall is definitely not "Judaism's holiest shrine" which is the Temple Mount.

b) she doesn't mention the ugly elements in Abbas' speech in Doha: “The Israeli occupation authorities are using the ugliest and most dangerous means to implement plans to erase and remove the Arab-Islamic and the Christian character of east Jerusalem.” Note: no Jews allowed in his scheme of things.

c) she notes Jerusalem "captured" in 1967 as if Israel began shelling Jerusalem instead of what happened - Jordan's Hussein shelled Jewish civilians.

d) and in 1967, we found over 50% of some 70,000 graves on Mt of Olives desecrated, used as latrine covers and walkways.

e) she mentions one site that suggests destruction of mosques but ignores years of destruction of archaeological artifacts and the Islamic Movement/North's campaign to deny Jewish rights including the simple one of pilgrimage and prayer.

I could have gone on but even I get tired at times.

Okay, I added another:

and here's something from the Washington Post itself:

"In the Monday night meeting, for instance, Erekat took issue with Ben-Ami's contention that Solomon's Temple, the Jewish sacred site built 3,000 years ago, had really once stood on the Temple Mount. As the two negotiators debated, Clinton looked on amazed.

"I don't believe there was a temple on top of the Haram, I really don't," said Erekat.

Ben-Ami, stunned, pulled down a volume from a bookshelf and looked up Temple Mount, showing Erekat dozens of references to Solomon's temple and its successor that stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D."

No, not mental retardation. A cross between intellectual and anthropological retardation. First, a spin-off of neoteny:

...J.B.S. Haldane [states that] a "major evolutionary trend in human beings" is "greater prolongation of childhood and retardation of maturity."

Or, to use a metaphor closer to our subject - which is the ability of a progressive to completely and even purposely misinterpret an issue all the while providing seemingly logical reasons that are cognitivitely misconstruing the problem and therefore the solution - there are those who suffer from a second type of retardation factor, one similar to what's know as the Rf, or, the Retardation factor (a slower rate, basically) in chemistry whereby

for a particular chemical species [it] is the ratio of solution velocity and species velocity or in other words the ratio between the rate of groundwater movement and rate of contaminant movement.

The progressive is Dahlia Scheindlin. In Israel, she works for local and international organizations dealing with Israeli-Palestinian conflict issues, peacemaking, democracy, religious identity and internal social issues in Israeli society. She is writing her doctoral dissertation in comparative politics at Tel Aviv University. The focus of her research is unrecognized (de facto) states. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University.

...First, the understanding that Israel is committing terrible deeds that are destroying itself and its neighbors, has penetrated among you, my American Jewish friends, family and colleagues, who now speak of this more openly and bluntly than in the past...My second observation is that because of your fear – not of the goyim or the anti-Semites, but of yourselves! – you are keeping a low public profile.

Now she's into apologetica, on behalf of another mythmaker - Mahmoud Abbas.

As we all know today, that speech of his at the Doha Jerusalem Conference (and here is an analysis) has all but sunk Abbas, especially among the liberal Jewish cult (Peace Now-J Street-Beinart-et al.). It has also generated an intra-Islamic dispute with
Minister of Waqf (Islamic endowments) and Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habbash having to stress that visiting Jerusalem is a religious duty in Islam, while needing to describe a fatwa issued byt the head of the international union of Muslim scholars Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi Qaradawi's as "bizarre."

...al-Habbash stressed that the Prophet was speaking while the city was under the control of the Roman Empire...Al-Habbash added: "When Muslims and Christians visit Jerusalem, they are actually challenging the Israeli policies aimed at isolating the holy city. Such visits represent material and moral support to the Jerusalemites who insist on remaining in Jerusalem so that they will not feel they were left alone to defend the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy places."

Note that Jews and Judaism have no place in the future "Palestine".

And to return to Scheindlin, first off she employs condescension:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha on Saturday set off the most proverbial alarm bells in Israel...

and then pooh-poohs it all:

Abbas’ general theme seemed to be raising awareness of the grave injustices perpetrated on the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, such as Israel’s attempt to build walls to keep them in or out, Judaize the eastern part, and use archeological/historical research to justify the Jewish claim to the city.

then mocks:

On cue, Prime Minister Netanyahu called the speech “lies” and “severe incitement.”

And what really upsets here is a Yediot Ahronot piece

The headline read: “Abu Mazen: Israel wants to establish the Temple on the ruins of al-Aqsa.” This sounds like unnecessary religious incitement [there is "necessary incitement"].

And then asks for understanding for her positions:

I am not sympathetic to claims that there is no Jewish connection to Jerusalem, that the Temple is a fiction and by implication, that Jerusalem belongs only to Muslims and Christians. Leaving the Jewish heritage out of his UN speech was one thing [???]; actively denying the Jewish spiritual connection is another.

And then she twists Abbas upside-down:

...It’s time to stop this absurd belief that ancient historical facts are at issue. Peoplehood, the weight of history, emotional bonds to a cultural, spiritual and yes, religious axis mundi are at issue and I believe passionately in the need for Jews to accept those aspects of Palestinian life.

In other words, all this 'crap' of 'narrative' is good because it supports and props up "Palestinianism". It's another contribution to inventivity and even if she has to now swallow the Zionsit narrative, so be it:

Let’s cast off the notion of a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians already, which I sometimes feel is a brilliant decoy of the far right. The truth is, we have long been in a conflict between extremists and moderates, between hateful and compassionates, between exclusivists and inclusivists. A genuine liberal universalist approach must accept that even those who believe in universal rights have a national, religious, cultural and spiritual identity they cherish.

On Monday, March 5, 2012 at the California Museum of Ancient Art, Professor Thomas Levy from the University of California, San Diego will share his new discoveries and research in an illustrated lecture, "Quest for King Solomon's Mines: Cyber-Archaeology in Jordan's Desert." Recent excavations in Jordan's Faynan copper ore district document an industrial revolution dating to the 10th century BC - coinciding with the time of the early Hebrew kings and Egyptian pharaohs.

Were David and Solomon Rulers of an Ancient Kingdom or mere Tribal Chieftains?

The lecture will focus on discoveries at the largest copper production site in the eastern Mediterranean, Khirbat en-Nahas and provides data in support of the historicity of David and Solomon. Khirbat en-Nahas had a massive copper-smelting operation dating to the time of the early Hebrew kings, the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I, and the Edomite kingdom. High precision radiocarbon dating and new digital archaeology technologies were used to achieve as objective an approach as possible.

...The J Street trip also included visits with Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

From Ramallah, the group drove to Shiloh, a Jewish town in the heart of the West Bank halfway between Ramallah and Nablus that because of its location likely would not be incorporated into Israel in any two-state settlement.

A group of Jewish women from several area settlements met with the congresswomen and told them they have no intention of leaving their homes.

“I’m holding the Bible; Shiloh was our first capital before Jerusalem and it has layers and layers of history,” Tzofiah Dorot, the director of Ancient Shiloh, told the women. “This is the heart of Israel and I don’t see a future for the state if you take the heart out.”

All of the women said they were sure that their settlements would remain part of Israel.

“This is our homeland, the homeland of the Jewish nation -- period,” Tamar Aslaf told the delegation. “A Palestinian who lives here is welcome to stay. It’s his home but it’s our homeland.”

Several of the settlers described a scenario in which Palestinians could stay in their homes but not receive national or voting rights. That drew a sharp reply from the congresswomen, five of whom are African Americans. [This isn't true. Tamar presented Naftali Bennet’s plan, that C would be annexed with its 50,000 Arab population becoming full Israeli citizens if they so wished^.]

“Some people would call that apartheid,” * said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the only white congresswomen on the trip.

“It’s easy to sit in your comfortable house and decide what is good for the Jews,” Dorot responded. “I’m begging you to see that we’re not pieces of Lego you can move around. This is life and death. We all need to think out of the box. I’m asking you to forget about the two-state solution.”

Several members of the delegation said the trip gave them a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

____________

^

Naftali Bennett, the co-founder of the right-wing NGO My Israel, has circulated a plan to annex Judea and Samaria...Bennett said he would annex all of Area C. He would offer Israeli citizenship to the 48,000 Palestinians who live in Area C...Granting citizenship to these Palestinians would eliminate all talk of Israel as an apartheid state, he said. But he added that Palestinian refugees who live outside of Area C would not be able to move there. Under his plan, he said, the Palestinian Authority would remain in control of Areas A and B, where there are no Jewish communities.

*

Apartheid?

Consider this:

Citizens of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., are no longer permitted to vote for US Congressional elections, nor State Elections...DC citizens had voting rights removed in 1801 by Congres...In 1978, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment that would have restored the District a full seat for representation in the Congress as well. This amendment failed to receive ratification by sufficient number of states within the seven years required.

Since then, Congress has consistently refused to offer for ratification a constitutional amendment that would restore District of Columbia residents either representation in both the Senate and the House...

Monday, February 27, 2012

The prize of $5,000 is awarded to two winners for an especially valiant, significant and qualitative contribution to media criticism. It is awarded for journalism criticizing the media, for providing and forming appropriate forums for media criticism, and for increasing pluralism and reducing monopolistic practices in the Israeli media. The aim of the prize is to encourage the Israeli media to open itself to criticism, whether from the journalists themselves or external sources such as intellectuals, academics and public figures.

Pictures from this year's ceremony at Bet Sokolow in Tel Aviv Sunday night:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on Arabs and Muslims to visit Jerusalem, saying this was not a form of “normalization” with Israel. In a speech in Doha before the International Conference for Defending and Protecting Jerusalem, Abbas...accused Israel of working toward obliterating the Arab, Islamic and Christian character of east Jerusalem with the goal of “Judaizing” the city and consolidating it as its capital. He also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing and destroying Jerusalem’s infrastructure and economic resources...East Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Palestine, the PA president told the conference, and Israel’s decision to annex east Jerusalem is null and void. Abbas also complained that since the early 1990s, Israel has been preventing Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from visiting Jerusalem and the holy sites...

...Abbas is apparently relying on the world’s short memory – so here is a reminder: The kind of freedom of religion that thrives in Jerusalem today is unprecedented. Before 1967, things were different. The Arabs had vowed in writing (Article 8 of the 1949 Armistice Agreement with Jordan) to allow the Jews access to holy sites beyond the border, but in practice they prevented the Jews from visiting the Western Wall, Rachel’s Tomb and the Mount of Olives.

The ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was unrecognizable in 1967: About 50,000 of the 70,000 gravestones had been smashed. Many of them were used to build fences, roads and public toilets...They vandalized and damaged antiquities on the Temple Mount...Incidentally, Bethlehem, which, in contrast to Jerusalem, was handed over to the Palestinians, did in fact become “Muslim.” The Christian majority there was severely oppressed by the Palestinian Authority and eventually became a minority.

The myth that the “Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger,” which Abbas and his followers repeat like a mantra, isn’t only a despicable lie, it is also the direct opposite of the truth. It is precisely with the Temple Mount that Israel made an unthinkable concession -- it essentially handed the Muslims the holiest Jewish site, even though it is only the third-holiest site in Islam. Archaeological excavations that supposedly attempt to “Judaize” Jerusalem have actually uncovered entire chapters of Muslim history alongside the Jewish and Christian findings. The archaeological park on the south side of the wall is just one example of this.

“This is a harshly inflammatory speech from someone who claims that he is bent on peace. The time has come for the Palestinian leadership to stop denying the past and distorting reality.”

“For thousands of years Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem, under Israeli sovereignty, will continue to be open to believers of all faiths. There is freedom of worship for all and Israel will continue to carefully maintain the holy places of all religions.”

The prime minister concluded, “[Abbas] knows full well that there is no foundation to his contemptible remarks, including his baseless and irresponsible claims regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The state of Israel expects that one who supposedly champions peace would prepare his people for peace and co-existence and not disseminate lies and incitement. This is not how one makes peace.”

Mr. Netanyahu, it would help if you were more forceful on preserving Jewish right to and im Jerusalem including foremost, the Temple Mount.

The mandate implicitly denies Arab claims to national political rights in the area in favor of the Jews; the mandated territory was in effect reserved to the Jewish people for their self-determination and political development, in acknowledgment of the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land. Lord Curzon, who was then the British Foreign Minister, made this reading of the mandate explicit. There remains simply the theory that the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have an inherent 'natural law' claim to the area."

And as I have repeated here many times:

The Mandate for Palestine, a legally binding document under international law, clearly differentiates between political rights - referring to Jewish self-determination as an emerging polity - and civil and religious rights, referring to guarantees of equal personal freedoms to non-Jewish residents as individuals and within select communities. Not once are Arabs as a people mentioned in the Mandate for Palestine. At no point in the entire document is there any granting of political rights to non-Jewish entities (i.e., Arabs).

_________See Eugene V. Rostow, The Future of Palestine, Institute for National Strategic Studies, November 1993. Professor Rostow was Sterling Professor of Law and Public Affairs Emeritus at Yale University and served as the Dean of Yale Law School (1955-66); Distinguished Research Professor of Law and Diplomacy, National Defense University; Adjunct Fellow, American Enterprise Institute. In 1967, as U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, he became a key draftee of UN Resolution 242. See also his article: "Are Israel's Settlements Legal?" The New Republic, October 21, 1991.

The Taliban also claimed Monday to be behind the poisoning of food at a dining facility at Forward Operating Base Torkham, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It too was a retaliatory attack, the group said.

ISAF confirmed that food at the base appeared to have been contaminated over the weekend, though it was unclear if it was deliberate.

"Nobody got sick. An Afghan dining facility worker came to his leaders at the FOB and said that something had been poisoned," Maj. David Eastburn, an ISAF spokesman, said.

"The dining facility was shut down and we brought in environmental health, who found traces of chlorine bleach in the coffee and fruit. Soldiers are now eating pre-prepared rations and no one was affected. There is a full investigation that is narrowing down who was responsible."

A group of young leftist University of New Mexico students crashed a talk by pro-Israel Nonie Darwish on their campus Thursday night, but were surprised when older audience members got up out of their seats and pushed them out posthaste.

"Nonie Darwish speaks for Israeli apartheid! And genocide at the hands of the IDF," the leftists yelled. However, older audience members with a no-nonsense approach walked up to the students and began pushing them out. The leftist disturbance had barely lasted a minute by the time the rioters had all been pushed out the door.

After debating and exchanging frustrating comments here, I finally managed to elicit this about the so-called non-violent advocate Fadi Quran:

Jacob Chase-Lubitz
14 minutes ago...
Fadi is struggling, according to his sister, for all of historic palestine to be a single democracy under which all peoples are recognized as equal under the law, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, or religion.

That, of course, is the euphemism for the denial of Zionism, non-acceptance of Jewish nationalism and the elimination of the state of Israel.

That, whether a goal of the terrorists of Fatah, Hamas or Islamic Jihad or of so-called non-violent activists like Mubarak Awad, Jonathan Kuttab or now Fadi Quran, is a violent one and must be rejected and dealt with appropriately.

Yesterday, his brother left this:

Semma Qura'an

1 day ago@Yisrael Medad my brother does not help halt the rock throwing. He opts for another type of resistance aimed at the ISRAELI OCCUPATION. Get your facts straight. stones are not the equivalent of the tear gas, skunk, sound bombs, rubber and live bullets and illegally used pepper spray the IOF use

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Why is Israeli government covering up Muslim effort to erase any trace of Jewish history on Temple Mount? || Archeology expert: Excavations barbaric, a crime

...The tractor's huge blade was lifted high up and then brought down with great force, shattering the ancient floors on Temple Mount. The large clods of earth exposed by the work were cast aside by the mustachioed driver. Yet even an amateur archeologist
could spot the priceless remnants of Jewish, Christian and Muslim history being cast away...According to specific Antiquities Authority instructions, any digging at the site was not allowed to exceed 60 centimeters (roughly two feet) and was not to be undertaken using mechanical equipment...workers largely ignored the instructions.

...Archeology expert Dr. Gabai Barkai, a world-renowned expert on Temple era excavations, was shocked by the reported work: "How could one dig up such sensitive area at night? How could one dig using mechanical equipment? Every such move is a crime. This is first-rate barbarity."

...Information elicited by the newspaper showed that the Waqf is consistently erasing any trace of Jewish history at the site.

Mideastern affairs expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar says these acts are undertaken in the framework of an Arab practice known as "erasing the signs," aimed at eliminating the remnants of any civilization that preceded Islam.

Members of the State Comptroller's Office launched an investigation into the affair four years ago and drafted a report about it. However, the Knesset's State Control Committee decided to impose a gag order on the report for "security reasons."

...Conversations and interviews held with dozens of officials involved in drafting the State Comptroller's secret report indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among the senior officials interested in shelving the document. Attorney Yisrael Caspi, who represents a group fighting the destruction on Temple Mount, says the PM is unequivocally responsible for the ongoing failure.

..."These days too, three tractors are being used on Temple Mount," [Israel] Caspi says. "Construction materials are also continuing to be brought into Temple Mount in violation of police pledges…Temple Mount looks today like a construction materials' warehouse…materials being brought in today will be used for illegal works tomorrow."..."You can't believe these things are happening. We are playing into our enemies' hands and shooting ourselves in the foot, because these generators can provide enough electricity for half the city. Why are they needed?"

After the opening of the Western Wall Tunnels in 1996 and the subsequent riots at the site, then-PM Netanyahu agreed to unilateral Waqf steps in the area...the Islamic body inaugurated the largest mosque in Israel at the large space associated with Solomon's stables, thereby banning Jews from entering the site. Two years later, the Waqf inaugurated another mosque, this time below the al-Aqsa Mosque nearby...Waqf members painted over rare Jewish works at the site. All this work was undertaken without Israeli supervision, and one can only imagine the kinds of cultural, historical and religious treasures lost in the process.

In 1999, the Waqf went a step further and dug a hole in the Temple Mount plaza, arguing that it needed to build an emergency exit for the mosque. The work was done by tractors, with some 250 trucks removing about 12,000 tons of soil replete with archeological findings from the site. The soil was dumped at a city garbage dump and also near the Kidron River.

Archeologists Gabi Barkai and Zachi Zweig are now sifting through [the dump]...[and] found decorated utensils from the King Solomon era, as well as coins and clay dating back to the second Temple. [Dr. Eilat Mazar said] "The Waqf's objective is to not only turn Temple Mount into a holy compound, but to turn it into a 'built up Aqsa' for Muslims only," she says. "One need not be an archeologist to understand there's destruction here."

The Prime Minister's Office issued the following response to the story: "As opposed to the claims, the body that imposed a gag order on the (State Comptroller's) report was not the government, but rather, the sub-committee of the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affair's Committee…any argument alleging that the report is not being published as result of irrelevant reasons is baseless and disconnected from reality."

What the article lacks is a report on the activities of the Islamic Movement - Northern Branch, the activities of Sheikh Raad Salah, the recent riots and the incitement of the PA Mufti which I have dealt with recently.

"We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque, including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."

"We remind the Israeli establishment, which stands behind these plans, that the problem of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian problem, but a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic problem. The day the Al-Aqsa Mosque is harmed, Heaven forbid, all the Arab and Islamic nations will call to prevent this damage. Watch out! Beware of merely the thought of hurting or desecrating the mosque."

Nirvana Jennette, a mom of four from Camden County, Georgia says she was forced out of church for breastfeeding her baby. Church leaders asked her to breastfeed in the bathroom and implied they could have arrested her for “lewd behavior.” The most egregious statement? She told news station WSAV that her pastor compared her breastfeeding to a stripper performing.

According to Fox 30 WAWS, although Georgia state law allows a mother to nurse her child anywhere, Jennette could face public indecency charges. She wants her message to be heard loud and clear -- breastfeeding is natural and moms who want to feed their children in public should be protected. To that end, she's decided to stage a nurse-in and is seeking to establish legislative change for the State of Georgia.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

...if Israel is inherently a racist state, if it is inherently an apartheid state, then I want no part of Israel, it has no place in this world. And it does in its current form, if you want me to use some inflammatory language, in its current form should be destroyed.

Adele, the big-voiced British singer-songwriter-guitarist, spoke a highly insensitive ethnic slur while trying to joke with the crowd during her show at Massey Hall in Toronto in 2009.

She was telling a story about how she had bought two guitars from “a rude Toronto pawn-shop owner” earlier in the day. “He wasn’t Canadian — he was Jewish,” she said, before realizing that statement was incredibly offensive to Jews in the audience, including my daughter, her friend and the friend’s father.

In a statement later released by Columbia Records, the singer said: “I sincerely apologize for being so naive and disrespectful! It was not my intention to be hurtful and I’m very sorry.”...

...This was a disgraceful comment, and it’s a clear reflection of Adele’s true feelings about Jewish people. A half-baked apology doesn’t change that.

Ironic, isn’t it, that Karl Lagerfeld’s foolish and offensive comment that Adele is “a little too fat” has received so much attention, when Adele’s own racist slur did not.

Friday, February 24, 2012

This afternoon on The Dictator movie’s spoof website for the fictional Middle Eastern country of ‘The Republic Of Wadiya’, an explosive notice was posted. (Obviously by Sacha Baron Cohen as his title character in The Dictator.):

“Admiral General Aladeen will deliver a formal response tomorrow morning [Friday] to being banned from The Oscars by the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Zionists.”

The Dictator is a spoof about the “heroic story of a Middle Eastern dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy never comes to the country he so lovingly oppressed”. Whether the fact that the 84th Academy Awards will be beamed into 200 countries had anything to do with Baron Cohen being banned from the Oscars was unclear. But it now looks like the Jewish comedian is taking on the normally verboten subject of Hollywood and Jews and Muslims. Oy vey!

Problem with Jewish comedians - they have a propensity for making too much fun of their own. Not everyone is Jewish in the entertainment world (and therefore get the inside joke) and not everything is kosher for money and publicity.

Following Silverstein's posting about Jews being provocative [if you do not wish to click on his site and also, if you want to leave comments, go here] and thereby causing the Arabs to throw rocks, two things happened today:

2 US Congressmen Elliot Engel and Jerald Nadler, along with Malcolm Hoenlein and other VIPs were touring the Mount of Olives with the JewishPress.com this morning when they came under a barrage of stones from Arabs exiting a nearby mosque.

Since the Mount of Olives cemetery has nothing to do with being a Moslem holy site vying for primacy over any Jewish site - like the excuse given for the Temple Mount contretemps - maybe these Arabs read Silverstein and figured they have 'cover' from a Jew to keep up the violent activity.

Following Friday prayers, worshippers began hurling rocks at the Mughrabi Bridge at the entrance to the Temple Mount, which prompted Israeli police forces to enter the plaza and attempt to scatter the protest.

Israeli police said that dozens of protesters gathered inside the Al-Aqsa mosque after hurling rocks at security forces, who, in a rare move, came to the entrance of the mosque and used stun grenades to scatter the protesters.

Eleven policemen and 15 Palestinians were wounded as a result of the clashes. Four Palestinians were arrested.

A rock throwing Arab mob attacked on Friday, in front of a mosque in the Ras Al-Amud neighborhood, a group that included Congressmen Elliot Engel and Jerald Nadler. The two legislators from New York State were on tour of the Mount of Olives Cemetery, along with Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein, and Rabbis Abraham and Menachem Lubinsky, founders of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Their tour, which included some 40 Jewish American leaders, was guided by JewishPress.com Managing Editor Yishai Fleisher

There's a report at Arutz 7 that the Islamic Waqf authorities are planning to alter the status of the Temple Mount so that they will be able to forbid the entrance of Jews in to the compound.

But I want to make it clear after 41 years of activity on behalf of Jewish rights to the Temple Mount and within, they have always claimed that the entire area is a mosque and that is why the minarets are on the walls and not on any one building.

Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar warns: The Waqf is planning to unite all the mosques on the Temple Mount into one.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Mazar said that for the past 12 years, the Waqf has constantly built on the Temple Mount in an attempt to implement its final plan: the establishment of a huge mosque on the Mount.

“There is no order there and no one to uphold the law,” she said. “No one can enforce the law there. Not the Israel Antiquities Authority, not the Nature and Parks Authority and not the city of Jerusalem. The police are there but they are precluded from enforcing.”

...the State Comptroller wrote a report which exposed serious findings about Israeli authorities’ inability to enforce the law on the Temple Mount, but noted that the report has remained confidential to this day.

“The Comptroller produced a thorough report and questioned all the right people. He came to important conclusions which so far have not been published. Our group has demanded and continues to demand that the contents of the report be published.”

She warned that the excavations of antiquities being performed on the Temple Mount by the Waqf may lead to disaster..."There is a danger that the ground will collapse under thousands of Muslims. It endangers the safety of the people...”

Mazar added, “I do not accept the argument that this could lead to a world war. The Temple Mount is at the center of Jerusalem. We’re not harming the Muslim rituals. We only want to enforce the law and order so that a disaster can be prevented. The Waqf cannot be trusted...

...“We know that the Waqf’s goal is to unite all one the mosques, and unfortunately today it is far from being just an illusion,” she said. “We will definitely weep over this plan in the future.”

Will we weep?

Well, we can weep over Silverstein's diatribe, claiming that: 'Messianic Settlers Provoke Violence And Seek Final Day Of Reckoning'.

Jews - and Christians - have a right to enter the Mount and Muslims attack but that doesn't bother Silverstein (who I doubt couldn't have writtn his op-ed without massive help from Israelis who spoonfed him material).

"Messianic settlers have banded together to orchestrate a crisis on the Temple Mount" is his buzz as if archaeological artifacts have not been destroyed or covered up or thrown away by Muslims, as if the police are afraid, as if stones are not thrown from inside over the Western Wall on worshippers below who aren't even in the compound.

He falsely asserts that in making an ascent:-

one must first evict or destroy the Muslim holy sites there as was done by Hindu nationalists to a mosque in Ayodiyah, India.

What a maligner. A mendacious idiot.

And again here, that "a call for Jews to have the same access to the Temple Mount that Muslims enjoy" is a

...problem...Muslims for generations have controlled the area. Until the type of agitation initiated by Sharon, access was relatively open. In fact, I can remember visiting both holy mosques during my stays in Israel in 1972-73 and 1979-1980. It was only after Muslims became afraid that Jews wanted to take control from them that relations went bad.

Soi, status quo wins? Well, let's make a new status quo. The Mulsims conquered the Temple and Jews can't enter so if Jews conquered, is it not logial - a la Silverstein - that Muslims be excluded?

But they are not.

That probably bothers Silverstein more - that we Jews still are more moral than the Waqf.

On Wednesday, the J Street Women's Delegation came to Shiloh, before the construction authorization story broke. I wasn't there but Jeremy Ben-Ami was.

I asked Ruchie Avital to write up her impressions and she consented:

As a longtime spokesperson of Ofra, I have had the opportunity to meet with many individuals and groups visiting Ofra. In most cases, the visitors to the area – both Jews and non-Jews, as well as journalists who have been sent from abroad to cover Israel – are sadly ignorant about the history of the State of Israel and the conflict with the Arab/Palestinians. The group I met with yesterday was different.

I was invited by Tamar Asraf, the dynamic and articulate spokesperson of the Benjamin Regional Council, and Tzofia Dorot, the warm and knowledgeable director of the Ancient Site of Shilo, to join them at a meeting with a J Street delegation, led by Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of the far-left organization. The visit itself was coordinated by Dar Nadler of a movement called Blue and White Future, which favors keeping only the large settlement blocks and evacuating all the other Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, comprising about 90,000 Jews. Dar’s moderation of the discussion was admirably fair and balanced.

The group was made up of about 20 or so women and two men, besides Jeremy Ben-Ami, including a number of Congresswomen, from J Street and another organization called Women’s Donors Network. Many were visiting for the first time, but appeared to be familiar with many of the issues, but of course from J Street’s point of view. However, they had come to listen. They asked tough questions, but listened to what we had to say and commented intelligently.

When thanking us, they noted that they had never heard some of the arguments we put forward before. I have no illusions about changing their minds. But I believe it’s important to talk and listen to one another. You never know.

Some 20 years ago, I was asked by a left-wing group to accompany a group of visiting women. We drove up through Ramallah with Zehava Galon commenting on the scene and we eventually arrived at Rechalim, then still a camp site. It was a women's project, with children nall around, a play area and the other elements of a Gush Emunim effort.

Orit Rappaport explained why they were there (Rachela Druck had been murdered there on the eve of the Madrid Conference and I was in Madrid at that time). The ladies were som impressed at the dedication, commitment and outright sacrifice of the women there that they opened up theior pocketbooks right then and there, handing over dollar bills.

Shocked, Zehava tried to stope them b ut their response was that this was above all a feminist issue, beyoind politics and that the women of Rechalim deserved their support and solidarity.

Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) met with top officials in the opposition and the ruling coalition, a statement issued Feb. 24 from the dovish pro-Israel group said. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who is not African American, also was part of the delegation.

Joining them were 14 female philanthropists; they were not named in the release. The statement was released after the delegation returned from the weeklong visit.

We all have to die sometime. Marie died doing what she loved, what made her feel most alive, what turns journalism from a job into something bigger and more noble: a mission. It’s perhaps not much of a consolation to her many friends and her family, but it’s what happened.

I have been a war correspondent for most of my professional life. It has always been a hard calling. But the need for frontline, objective reporting has never been more compelling.

Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death, and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes or terrorists clash. And yes, it means taking risks, not just for yourself but often for the people who work closely with you.

...Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery, and what is bravado?

A mob of 50 Muslims reportedly attacked a group of Christian tourist's atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount, according to Israel Today Magazine. Israeli police intervened to protect the Christian group and three officers were wounded.

Many of the attackers were minors and 11 of them were caught and arrested.

Investigators believe the attack was sparked by the former Muslim mufti (scholar) of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri...Muslim religious figures claim that Israel is plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque to rebuild a new Jewish Temple. Muslims claim that a Jewish Temple never existed.

The al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock were constructed at Temple Mount after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, according to The Muslim Conquest of Syria.

Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth for Jews and many Christians, according to Israel Today. However, Israel must comply with strict Muslim demands for restrictions of non-Muslims who visit the site. Christians and Jews are forbidden from carrying Bibles at Temple Mount and even uttering silent prayers

it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem

European Union Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has called upon the Israeli government to reverse its decision granting approval for new constructions in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

"The High Representative is deeply concerned by the approval on 22 February by the Israeli Civil Administration of new construction in the settlements of Shvut Rachel and Shilo as well as the retrospective approval granted for housing units already built," Ashton's spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Settlements are illegal under international law. In addition the Quartet Roadmap states that Israel should not only freeze all settlement activity, but also dismantle those settlements erected since March 2001," the statement added.

Opponents of the Service Deferral Law, on the other hand, could not hide their glee.

"An historic decision," said [Tzruya] Medad-Luzon, of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. She told DPA that she hoped parliament would now "really invest effort and thought" into a more balanced law.

A doctor's manual from 16th Century France even advised couples that the best time to conceive was not at the end of a long day's labour but "after the first sleep", when "they have more enjoyment" and "do it better".

For it has been taught: R. Eliezer says: The night has three watches...In the first watch, the ass brays; in the second, the dogs bark; in the third, the child sucks from the breast of his mother, and the woman talks with her husband.

On page 250, Rav Aaron of Navorna is quoted in his Orchot Chayyim, p. 75, that the middle of the third watches of the night is conducive to sexual relations. This follows the Rambam, Deot 5:4

Although a man's wife is permitted to him at all times, it is fitting that a wise man behave with holiness. He should not frequent his wife like a rooster. Rather, [he should limit his relations to once a week] from Sabbath evening to Sabbath evening, if he has the physical stamina.

When he speaks with her, he should not do so at the beginning of the night, when he is sated and his belly [is] full, nor at the end of the night, when he is hungry; rather, in the middle of the night, when his food has been digested.

He should not be excessively lightheaded, nor should he talk obscene nonsense even in intimate conversation with his wife. Behold, the prophet has stated (Amos 4:13): "And He repeats to a man what he has spoken." [On this verse,] our Sages commented: A person will have to account for even the light conversation that he has with his wife.

[At the time of relations,] they should not be drunk, nor lackadaisical, nor tense - [neither both of them,] or [even] one of them. She should not be asleep, nor should the man take her by force, against her will. Rather, [the relations should take place] amidst their mutual consent and joy. He should converse and dally with her somewhat, so that she be relaxed. He should be intimate [with her] modestly and not boldly, and withdraw [from her] immediately.

It is the course of holy conduct to engage in relations in the middle of the night (In Hilchot Deot 5:4, the Rambam gives a rationale that at this time a person's food will have been digested and yet, he will not be overly hungry. The commentaries to Nedarim 20b explain that in this manner, the man and his wife will have forgotten all their daytime concerns and will be able to focus their attention on each other and the holiness of the experience).

...Peace Now, by force of habit, petitioned the court against the construction in Shiloh and in Shvut Rachel. As we know, Shiloh is mentioned in the Quran as an Arab community that has existed since creation. Who would believe the stories in the Bible indicating that Shiloh was the capital of the Tribes of Israel for hundreds of years?

Peace Now's argument was that these communities lacked the necessary zoning authorizations – as is the case in countless cities, even within the Green Line – making construction there illegal.

In response to the petition, the state provided the zoning permits, legalizing the existing construction and even authorizing future construction of hundreds of additional housing units. At this rate, Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer will get a Zionism medal for instigating the construction of entire cities...

__________

UPDATE

...a spokesperson for the EU's High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Ashton said the FM was "deeply concerned by the approval on 22 February by the Israeli Civil Administration of new construction in the settlements of Shvut Rachel and Shiloh as well as the retrospective approval granted for housing units already built."

"Settlements are illegal under international law. In addition the Quartet Roadmap states that Israel should not only freeze all settlement activity, but also dismantle those settlements erected since March 2001," the statement said.

..."The High Representative calls on Israel to respect its obligations under the Roadmap and reverse this decision," the statement concluded.

QUESTION: -- settlement activity in Israel? There was news of a preliminary decision regarding, I think, 600 units in Shiloh, which is quite far inside West Bank territory. Do you have a reaction to this that’s different than previous reactions for the same --

MR. TONER: I really don’t. I don’t have a – frankly, I haven’t seen those press reports. I mean, you know where we stand on settlement activity. We don’t believe it’s in any way constructive to getting both sides back to the negotiating table and we want to see, clearly, a comprehensive settlement that delineates borders and resolves many of these issues.

If you read this story from yesterday, about a stoning incident, here's the full first-person testimony:-

What Happened to Me on Tuesday Last

This past Tuesday, 28 Shvat - February 21, I was returning home to Karmei Tzur from Efrat where I work.

At the Gush Etzion Junction I collected a female hitchhiker who got into a back seat since the front passenger seat was where our infant seat was affixed. What luck. While traveling between El-Aroub and Bet-Omar on the ascent I noticed a car approaching from the opposite direction with a damaged front window from a rock that must have previously landed. I naively presumed that that was the result of an old incident that hadn't yet been fixed.

When I came close to the gas station at Bet-Omar (a location that usually requires a driver's attention due to wrongly parked taxis, bypassing and pulling out into the highway in a careless manner), I observed a man running across the road from right to left. I first thought that this was a soldier with a rifle and I slowed down to grasp what was happening. I then noticed dozens of people, old, young and teenagers, congregating on my right. It then became apparent that the "soldier with a rifle" was actually a photographer with a camera. He was seeking a better picture angle to snap away at what was about to happen. On my left were at least two other photographers, waiting for the action. I should emphasize that I was not the first victim and other cars had already been stoned and so these press photographers were well aware what was happening and was about to happen to me. None of them, it seems, thought to call for assistance from the police or IDF none of whom were present.

Knowing I had no choice but to continue and surely not stop for otherwise, if I had slowed down, I would have been trapped and blocked off, the only thing in my mind was to proceed home and not get caught at that crossing. It was difficult to pass through as the rocks came from a distance of just a few feet from the car, 'zero-range' as we say. The rioters clearly could see that the car contained two young females, defenceless. We were struck by many rocks, my view was blocked by the cracked glass and I simply concentrated on getting out of there as quickly as I could. At the time, as well as at this moment of writing, I did not fully grasp the danger of our situation.

It was only when I arrived home that I realized the entire front of the car was covered with shattered glass particles including me, the infant seat, the back seat, everything. There was also damage caused to the sides of the car. At least eight large rocks and blocks had hit my car. I learned the rock-throwing continued for a good few minutes afterwards with the resulting damage to other vehicles as well as psychological damage to the drivers and passengers.

Then I had to tell my children what happened in a normal, non-hysterical fashion so as to prepare them for further conversations that they would hear from grownups talking about the incident.

This is the first time I experienced such a serious and difficult incident as this and pray it is the last. And we have been living in Karmei Tzur for the past eight years. But now I know from first-hand experience with surety that rockthrowings occur all the time, especially on Highway 60 between the Gush Etzion junction and Halhoul. My first-grade son's transportation has also been stoned.

Another point: these terrorists had no qualms about not covering their faces during their attempt at murder.

We try to overcome the fear and to live our everyday life. We are believing people, with faith. After an incident like this we will pronounce the benediction "Blessed is He who Who bestows good things on those unworthy, and has bestowed on me every goodness". We believe in goodness, and that it will overcome evil. We only pray and hope that people in Israel and around the world will finally recognize the truth, that our enemies, the Arabs who fight us wish for evil, they want destruction, while we wish for good and want peace, even with our neighbors. We wish for life.

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.